No one ever doubted the quality of Ilias Iliadis who, back in 2004 when he was just 17, became the youngest Olympic judo champion. But he underlined his stature in the sport last week when he returned to the top of the podium at the world championships in Tokyo.

To get there, to win the under 90 kg middleweight gold medal, the 23-year-old had to show real courage.

Not just to defeat six other top-class athletes on the day – including two of the local favourites Takashi Ono and, in the final, Daiki Nishiyama – but to overcome two years of serious injuries which threatened to end his career.

Injury is the thing that athletes fear most, far more than a talented, dangerous opponent. Plans can be made to defeat opponents but when there are questions about the ability of your own body to go the course, then the doubts creep in. Injury restricts the mind as much as the body.

“Apart from physical rehabilitation, I have kept myself motivated with help from people around me and my own efforts,” said Iliadis after defeating Nishiyama with a spectacular wrap-around throw in overtime to become the first Greek to win a world title.

For Iliadis, then, to return in such emphatic style is perhaps an even greater triumph than his gold medal in the Athens Olympics.

“The past years, I was really badly injured with my knee and with my hand. But today, it is like everything is gone. I feel good, I have no pain. That’s great.”

Born in Tblisi, the capital of Georgia, a country which is far more advanced than Greece in the world of judo, Jarji Zviadauri was adopted at the age of 12 by Nikos Iliadis, now the Greek national team coach, and renamed Iliais Iliadis.

Aged 17, he was already European champion in the 81 kg category when he strode through to Olympic gold, the first Greek ever to win the top prize in judo.

As he got older so he got bigger and he subsequently moved up to the 90 kg class, settling for silver at the 2005 and 2007 world championships. Then came the injuries.

Knee surgery a month before the Beijing Olympics was hardly ideal preparation and he fell at the first hurdle. Surgery on the other knee a year later contributed to a third round loss at the world championships in Rotterdam.

This year, Iliadis has been free of injury. His resurgence was notable in April when he took the bronze at the European championships in Vienna. He followed up with two fifth places at top ranking events in Rio de Janeiro and Moscow. And then came Tokyo.

He did everything in his power to take the contest to the Japanese who was happy simply to do the judo equivalent of parking the team bus in front of the goal.

“My judo is based only on the attack, I don’t really care about who is in front of me,” said Iliadis. “I just keep pushing and pushing. Nishiyama is very young and strong, but I just felt so good today. Today was my day and I did it.”

London 2012 beckons.

A longer version of this article first appeared in the http://www.athensnews.gr September 17, 2010